World Food Day 2021
Written by Ms Lisa ZAMMIT (Malta)
The 4th ASEF Young Leaders Summit (ASEFYLS4) focuses on ‘Sustainable Development in a post-COVID-19 World’ and incorporates 3 spheres for youth leadership: 1) self-leadership (you), 2) team leadership (we) and 3) societal leadership (all). To demonstrate the youth’s role in driving Sustainable Development, the programme encourages participants to collaborate & volunteer on meaningful community projects with an Asia-Europe twist. Based on the four ASEFYLS4 focus areas (SDG3, SDG4, SDG8 and SDG13), participants are allocated to specific working groups and work on “Leadership in Action” activities. In total, the ASEFYLS4 facilitates 15 community projects, each led by 1 ASEFYLS4 Navigator and supported by up to 10 participants from different Asian & European countries.
The project “Food Forests” showcases food forests across Asia and Europe through a social media campaign to educate and inspire an ASEM audience: about their process of establishment and maintenance, delivery of benefits to the individuals and communities involved, and the science behind their contribution to increasing the amount of carbon sequestration in the ground. Here one of the group members writes about the connection between food forests and World Food Day.
October 16, 2021 — Today marks the thirtieth time World Food Day has been celebrated — and the second since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Now, more than ever, it is imperative that we think about the future of food. While experts have estimated that by 2050, we’ll need to produce around double the amount of food that we produce now in order to be able to feed everyone, the problem is fast becoming exacerbated by the impact of the pandemic and its mitigation measures. Already, more than 3 billion people (almost 40% of the world’s population) cannot afford a healthy diet, with almost 2 billion people being overweight or obese due to a poor diet and a sedentary lifestyle, and around 800 million people having faced hunger in 2020 — a number that is steadily increasing in spite of decades of effort to reduce it.[1]
On October 16, 1945, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) was founded, with the goal of achieving “freedom from want of food, suitable and adequate for the health and strength of all people”. World Food Day honours that day and the commitment to end hunger, and is one of the most celebrated days of the UN calendar.[2] It brings together governments, businesses, NGOs, the media and the public, through hundreds of events and activities, to promote worldwide awareness and action towards ending hunger and ensuring healthy diets for all. This year’s theme is “Our actions are our future — Better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life”; more specifically, on how to achieve this by supporting “the transformation to more efficient, inclusive, resilient and sustainable agri-food systems”.[3]
So, what is an agri-food system, and what role can we play in participating in their transformation? According to FAO, “a sustainable agri-food system is one in which a variety of sufficient, nutritious and safe foods is available at an affordable price to everyone, [where] nobody is hungry or suffers from any form of malnutrition.” Food is available as needed in markets and stores, but there is less food waste and loss, the food supply chain is well prepared in case of shocks such as extreme weather, economic decline or pandemics, it mitigates climate change and environmental degradation, and reduces social and economic inequalities.
While a large part of the responsibility lies with governments in transforming agri-food systems, such as by repurposing old policies and adopting new ones that “foster the sustainable production of affordable nutritious foods and promote farmer participation” — especially through the support of the private sector, civil society, researchers and academia — we too can play a role in this endeavour. By increasing our demand for sustainably produced nutritious foods, we can influence what is produced. We can also reduce food loss and waste through our daily actions, as well as raise awareness about the importance of a healthy and sustainable lifestyle by sharing knowledge and good practices. Mitigating climate change and environmental degradation, and in turn ensuring our health and wellbeing, depend on this.[4]
As participants of the 4th Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF) Young Leaders Summit (ASEFYLS4), we aim to investigate new ways to promote sustainability and show how local action can be instrumental in environmental protection, particularly through the establishment of food forests. For this reason, we — several young people from Asia & Europe founded Food Forests Global, an initiative that aims to empower people to implement regenerative, biodiverse systems that can grow high-quality food and bring people together.
Food forests mimic the diversity of a natural forest to produce food. Plants that complement each other are grown together, increasing biodiversity by providing a habitat for native fauna and pollinators, and ensuring healthy soils and plants. They are climate resilient, as they sequester more carbon in the soil, improving water retention and slowing down movement of water, mitigating the impact of big rainfall events and increasing resilience to drought. By modelling the food forest on a natural ecosystem, which is naturally balanced, a food forest will replicate itself over time, producing food sustainably, and help regenerate the soil. Food forests can also be grown in urban areas, such as in community gardens or in balconies/rooftops, so unlike large industralised agricultural systems, they are closer to consumers and reduce “food miles”.
The concept of the ‘food forest’ originated in permaculture, and is linked to other fields such as agroforestry and regenerative agriculture. Food forests are part of the solution to mitigating the impacts of climate change, and can also improve food security and nutrition, hence contributing to several Sustainable Development Goals, such 1, 2 and 3, by reducing hunger and poverty and ensuring health and wellbeing, and 13 and 15: engaging in climate action and protecting life on land. They also have the potential to contribute to goals 8 and 10, by creating green jobs and reducing inequalities, as well as 11 and 12, by creating sustainable cities and communities and promoting responsible consumption and production.
What are you doing to help transform food systems? Here are some ideas on what you as an individual or as part of: a private corporation or company, an employee of the government or other public institution, a farmer, a civil society actor or a member of academia and research organisation, can do to help transform food systems: http://www.fao.org/3/cb5602en/cb5602en.pdf, http://www.fao.org/fao-stories/article/en/c/1393055/. The future of food is in our hands.
For more information on Food Forests Global, you can follow us on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/foodforestsglobal/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FoodForestsGlobal
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ForestsFood
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2rmK46Y2aP-0taErY8VX_w
Ms Lisa ZAMMIT is a participant of the 4th ASEF Young Leaders Summit. She undertook a Bachelor’s degree in English and German Studies and a Master’s degree in European Society, Politics and Culture, which included a project management internship with an NGO in South Africa. For over four years, Lisa has been working at the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) at its headquarters in Rome, where her current role is to ensure that relevant stakeholders get the right information at the right time, in order to improve food security and nutrition situations. Lisa is an ASEFEdu alumnus.
NOTE:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely by the author(s) and do not represent that of the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF).
Copyright © 2021.
